**Abstract**

Students studying at higher education institutions face many challenges. Students who attempt to overcome these challenges may alter their behaviors. This may negatively affect their psychological state and cause them to feel anxiety. Anxiety is most prominent among college students. Many students face anxiety when they think they cannot achieve their academic or non-academic purposes; however, sometimes anxiety can encourage students to think more critically about how to achieve their goals. Students cope with anxiety in different ways, but some may struggle. This probably causes many symptoms that affect their mental health. Therefore, they should alleviate the anxiety to keep their mental health and persist in the institution.

**Keywords:** anxiety, symptoms, factors, faculty members, colleges' students

### **1. Introduction**

College students' mental health plays a very important role in their success and persistence at their institution [1]. When the students can manage their anxiety, they feel less pressure. If the students remain anxious, they may not follow through with their academic studies. Also, anxiety could complicate their physical and psychological states and persist after graduation, and it may negatively affect their capacity to work in the future [2]. Therefore, it is important to understand the factors that cause students' anxiety at higher education institutions.

## **2. Methods**

To achieve the purposes of the study which focused to present the factors that cause students' anxiety in higher education institutions and find the solutions to this issue, a literature review was used to describe students' perception of anxiety feelings while they study in higher education institutions. Many studies that described students' perceptions from different countries were used to present this issue.

#### **2.1 Data analysis**

The researcher collected the researches that focus on students' anxiety and grouped them in different subcategories and explained each category based on the availability of recent researches that belong to the topic and the experience of

the researcher. Although there were many factors that may cause students' anxiety, the researcher focused on some critical factors that presented in most higher education institutions in recent years.

## **3. The factors that cause students' anxiety at higher education institutions**

#### **3.1 Studying a new language**

Studying a new language is a major factor that causes anxiety among many students, especially those who follow their studies in a non-native language. Most students in higher education institutions study English as a foreign language or as a second language. Some of them may learn English before college. However, they may not able to meet the high level of English proficiency required at the college level. They face anxiety because if they cannot pass successfully, they may not be able to graduate from the institution.

Tian [3] indicates Korean students face language anxiety when they must make presentations in class, and they lack language proficiency. Moreover, they feel anxiety because of their peers' negative feedback. Charoensukmongkol [4] also indicates Thai students face language anxiety because they lack proficiency in the English language. Tsai and Lee [5] found Taiwanese students have anxiety when reading English because they do not understand the English vocabulary, the topics, or the long and complicated text structures, and they fear they will make mistakes when answering questions.

Jawas [6] found Indonesian students also have English language anxiety because they lack proficiency in writing, and the instructors present them with class essay assignments that probably increase their anxiety because of the limited time in class to finish the assignment with the appropriate answer. Also, some Indonesian students have anxiety when giving a presentation. Some of them may not prepare well and do not like when someone asks them difficult questions about the presentation [7].

Abdala and Elnadeef [8] also indicate that Saudi Arabian students feel anxious about learning the English language specifically when they make mistakes in the class and lack writing proficiency. They are scared when they hear unwanted comments and jokes from their classmates while they are speaking. Some other students face anxiety in learning the Chinese language [9]. The Chinese language is not easy to learn, specifically in speaking and writing. Also, some Hispanic students have difficulties when studying Spanish, specifically in writing, spelling words, and using conjunctions [10].

#### **3.2 The curriculum difficulty**

Curriculum difficulties are also considered a factor that causes students' anxiety in most higher education institutions. Some students cannot understand the curriculum and struggle to answer questions in the classroom, do assignments, and write research papers or reports. Some students may hesitate to ask the instructors for help; therefore, they become anxious because they are unable to meet the course requirements. Some difficult curriculums include mathematics [11–13], biology [14, 15], statistics [16], chemistry, physics, history [17], and law [18]. In addition, there are several medical specialization classes that cause students' anxiety, such as dental and medical [19], medical and engineering [20], dentistry and veterinary [21], and pharmacy [22].
